Drink-driver reversed into pedestrian outside hotel in Lerwick

A disqualified driver who hit a pensioner with a van while under the influence of alcohol has had his sentencing deferred for background reports.

Roy McLuckie, of Affric Avenue, Scone, Perthshire, admitted a number of charges when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

These included drink-driving, driving while disqualified, driving while uninsured and causing serious injury by striking a man with a vehicle.

The pedestrian was left with “five broken ribs and bruising to his abdomen and face” after the 27-year-old twice struck him with the van, procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said.

Police later found that McLuckie had been more than three times over the limit at the time of the incident.

Mr MacKenzie explained that McLuckie had been drinking in “local pubs” on the day in question – 8th October last year – before being driven to the Shetland Hotel in a works van by a sober colleague.

At the hotel an international football match involving Scotland was on television and McLuckie joined the crowd of punters watching the game.

After the match McLuckie “obtained the keys for the works van from his colleague on the pretext of needing to acquire his mobile phone”, the fiscal said.

A number of witnesses smoking outside the hotel had a “clear view of the incident as it unfolded”. Some of those who witnessed events were “immediately concerned as they recognised [McLuckie] as someone they’d seen earlier in the day in another pub, clearly drunk”, Mr MacKenzie added.

McLuckie drove the car towards the exit of the lower car park at the hotel before he, “for whatever reason, reversed back into the car park at speed in what could be described as a random sweeping motion”.

The fiscal said there was “no suggestion” that McLuckie intended to hit the pensioner, who had been walking in the area with a friend.

“Clearly this was not an assault with a vehicle”, Mr MacKenzie said.

The charges against McLuckie state that he reversed at “excessive speed without maintaining any rearward observation”, resulting in him striking the man and knocking him to the ground.

McLuckie brought the van to a halt before “reversing again” and hitting the man, who was still prone on the ground, for the second time.

“The van partially drove on to the prone complainer, trapping him under the wheel”, the fiscal added.

Witnesses informed McLuckie that he had struck someone with the van and told him to move forward. He moved the vehicle a short distance before going to the rear of the vehicle, where he saw the injured man on the ground. He then left the car park, driving the van to a “nearby MOT testing centre”.

McLuckie walked back to the hotel a short while later where police and ambulance were in attendance. Witnesses identified him as the driver of the van and he was given a roadside screening test which he failed.

The pedestrian was taken to the hospital where he was found to have suffered broken ribs. The fiscal said that “none of the injuries required surgical intervention”.

Mr MacKenzie said: “Clearly it goes without saying that the injuries could have been significantly worse.”

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank deferred sentencing for background reports. McLuckie will return to court next month where his defence agent will give representation.